David Feeney's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
type: channel
language: en-gb
creator: OpenAustralia.org, mprss.php script
date: 2018-03-26T22:05:28+00:00
items: Holden | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Azerbaijan | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Victoria: Regional Development Australia | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Australia-India Relationship | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Fitzgerald, Ms Sue | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Elections | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Asylum Seekers | Statements by Members | House debates
items: Turnbull Government | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
items: Broadband | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Batman Electorate: Preston Market | Adjournment | House debates
items: | Personal Explanations | House debates
items: Aged Care | Private Members' Business | House debates
items: Live Animal Exports | Constituency Statements | House debates
items: Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
items: Workplace Relations | Statements by Members | House debates

Holden | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I begin by thanking my colleague, the member for Wakefield, for bringing this very important motion before this parliament, and I am delighted to second it. Last week, the sadness about the final...
encoded: I begin by thanking my colleague, the member for Wakefield, for bringing this very important motion before this parliament, and I am delighted to second it. Last week, the sadness about the final destruction of this country's car industry reverberated throughout this chamber, throughout this parliament and, I might say, across the country. The closure of the Holden Australia plant in Elizabeth was really the final chapter in what has been an extinction-level event for thousands of Australian jobs, an entire industry being wiped out by this government. Over some nearly seven decades the car industry has employed, quite literally, generations of workers. It was a source of good-quality jobs for migrants and for working-class people. In my own electorate of Batman, where some two in five persons were born overseas, many residents now in their golden years remember working in those car factories, and they remember the good jobs and the opportunities that came with them. They came to this country with next to nothing but with a hope for a better life for themselves and for their children, and they found work in car manufacturing companies. They built cars for our grandparents and our parents, and they helped to build them for this nation. Their jobs were a source of both personal and national prosperity. They are often the neglected heroes of this nation's nation-building story. If only today they were able to have a government that backed them in. If only today they had a government that was prepared not only to acknowledge their contribution but to seize the opportunities the car industry could have looked forward to into the future. Victoria has been making cars for over seven decades, and now that, too, has come to an end. The reality is that all three brands that have a deep history in this country, that helped build this country, are now gone. Instead, the government made an active, a calculated and a conscious decision, Prime Minister after Prime Minister, Treasur…
date: 2017-10-23T16:56:00+00:00

Holden | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
encoded: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
date: 2017-10-23T16:45:00+00:00

Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: This amendment bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017, was first flagged in last year's budget. It was the political centrepiece of the Turnbull government's...
encoded: This amendment bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017, was first flagged in last year's budget. It was the political centrepiece of the Turnbull government's 2016-17 budget. The fact that we've only got to commence the parliamentary debate concerning these bills in mid-September of 2017 speaks to the chasm that exists between what the Turnbull government says are its political priorities and what its deeds reveal its priorities to actually be. Labor has made plain that we will not support the Turnbull government's $65 billion tax cut for business. It is a tax cut that the Australian budget and the country cannot afford. It is in ever-deepening deficit under this conservative government, with a gross debt that has hit the $500 billion mark in June and is still growing. It is a record debt that has nearly doubled from the $280 billion that existed when the coalition took office in 2013. It is a matter of fact that, when the coalition took office, gross debt per person was $12,076. Today, after nearly five years of coalition economic stewardship, that number has grown to around $20,025 per person. This is a government Australia cannot afford, and this government is proposing a tax cut that Australia cannot afford. The Turnbull government's plans for growth only meant growth of the debt. The government's budget papers expect gross debt to hit $725 billion in 2027-28, with no peak in sight. It is the coalition that turned out to be the debt and deficit disaster for our country. Labor has always opposed this tax cut because it represents a significant structural deterioration to the budget over the medium term and it represents a deterioration at precisely the wrong moment for the Australian public debt. This amendment bill represents a hit to the budget that shows the rank hypocrisy of a government which lectures the Australian people about the need for budget repair on the one hand and yet deliberately deepens the debt on the other. Reme…
date: 2017-10-19T10:29:00+00:00

Azerbaijan | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: In recent weeks leaked data has revealed that Azerbaijan's ruling elite operated a secret $2.9 billion scheme to launder money and pay prominent Europeans, including journalists and politicians....
encoded: In recent weeks leaked data has revealed that Azerbaijan's ruling elite operated a secret $2.9 billion scheme to launder money and pay prominent Europeans, including journalists and politicians. This unfolding scandal shows that the Azerbaijani leadership, already accused by Amnesty International and other NGOs of serial human rights abuses, systemic corruptions and rigging elections, made more than 16,000 covert payments from 2012 to 2014 through a network of opaque British companies. Investigations led by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project have revealed that these illicit payments, using reputable banks and secret companies, aimed to buy political influence and launder Azerbaijan's international image. Just this week, the ASIO annual report warned that foreign governments have been attempting to shape the opinions of the public and the media in covert influence operations. New South Wales Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells visited Azerbaijan recently. Upon her return she stated on the public record, 'Australia is a forthright supporter of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity and strongly supports Azerbaijan's position on Nagorno-Karabakh.' This bold statement rewrites Australian foreign policy and disregards Australia's longstanding support of the OSCE Minsk Group peace efforts for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of equal rights and the self-determination of people. I urge the senator to not give in to caviar diplomacy. (Time expired)
date: 2017-10-19T13:42:00+00:00

Victoria: Regional Development Australia | Private Members' Business | House debates
type: item
description: I begin by thanking my colleagues the members for Scullin and McEwen for bringing this motion and these important sentiments to the attention of the House. This important motion concerns the...
encoded: I begin by thanking my colleagues the members for Scullin and McEwen for bringing this motion and these important sentiments to the attention of the House. This important motion concerns the Northern Melbourne Regional Development Australia committee. Melbourne is booming faster than ever. It is now one of the 10 fastest-growing large cities in the developed world. It is growing quicker than Mexico City and New York. In the past decade declining affordability of inner-city living and the evolution from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge economy have driven massive growth and great change in Melbourne's north. We are now facing unprecedented population growth. Recent data has shown that it will become home to more than 300,000 additional persons by 2031. This means that the northern suburbs of Melbourne will soon be the size of Adelaide. The renowned livability which northern Melbourne has always been proud of—safe, multicultural, cosmopolitan and on the doorstep of the Melbourne CBD—is at risk of being replaced by a decreasing quality of life and productivity. Population growth has placed severe pressure on already strained infrastructure, with services and new infrastructure not keeping up with the demands of new residents. We see this on our roads with traffic congestion and at our train stations. Population growth, combined with a shift in structural change, and the growth of unemployment and underemployment have become major economic challenges in our parts of Melbourne. Recent research shows that in Melbourne's north there are some of the highest localised unemployment figures in the state, and we're well above the Victorian and national averages. In particular, the level of youth unemployment is pronounced and unacceptable. The unemployment rates of the 15-to-24-year-old cohort in the cities of Hume, Whittlesea and Darebin are three to five percentage points higher than that found in inner Melbourne. All of the City of Darebin and parts of the City of Whit…
date: 2017-10-16T13:13:00+00:00

Australia-India Relationship | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: With the cricket season creeping upon us here in Australia, tens of millions of cricket fans around the world will have their eyes once again on the cricket teams and sporting prowess found in...
encoded: With the cricket season creeping upon us here in Australia, tens of millions of cricket fans around the world will have their eyes once again on the cricket teams and sporting prowess found in the Indian subcontinent. With that region's emerging new economic and security power, and Australia's strategy of pivoting its trade and defence interests towards the Indo-Pacific, our cricket friends or foes in the subcontinent region are now our important strategic partners—particularly India. India, a country with whom Australia has enjoyed diplomatic relations for over 70 years and a country with whom we fought side by side at Gallipoli, is, quite properly, at the forefront of our thinking on international and regional strategic partners. Australia and India complement each other economically. Australia produces goods and services that India wants—energy, education related travel, food and precious metals—and we are engaged in a comprehensive regional economic partnership. We have the Australia-India CEO Forum and Australia Business Week in India. The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund has supported some 300 joint projects since 2007. We of course have a nuclear cooperation agreement and we share an ocean that is called 'Indian'. Governments can and should sign agreements and memoranda of understanding and should host dialogues, forums and leadership summits. But it is the people-to-people links that make these relationships deep, sincere and lasting. In my own electorate of Batman we have a strong subcontinental community, with the majority of them being followers of the Hindu faith. They are engineers, lawyers, business owners and university professors. They are active in our community. They of course contribute enormously to our society. In recent weeks they have reached out to my office by phone, in letters and on social media because their religious sentiments were deeply hurt by Meat and Livestock Australia's latest lamb ad campaign. In a video advertisement, Lo…
date: 2017-09-14T10:38:00+00:00

Fitzgerald, Ms Sue | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: It is impossible to exaggerate how invaluable those who dedicate their lives to the care, education, growth and joy of our youngest children are to our community. My local community of Fairfield...
encoded: It is impossible to exaggerate how invaluable those who dedicate their lives to the care, education, growth and joy of our youngest children are to our community. My local community of Fairfield has been blessed over many years with one such individual, who has now announced her plan to retire. Known to most people as Miss Sue, Ms Sue Fitzgerald, the director of Alfred Nuttall Memorial Kindergarten in my electorate, is planning to hang up her hat at the end of this year. During her 30 years of service, Miss Sue has seen approximately 1,500 children enter her doors, first as the director of the Wonthaggi Kindergarten for two years before joining the Alfred Nuttall Memorial Kindergarten in 1988. I had the honour of visiting Alfred Nuttall Memorial Kindergarten earlier this year, and during my visit Miss Sue was generous enough to share her expertise and her views on a range of issues with me—issues ranging from unsafe pedestrian crossings near her kinder to the long waiting lists for child health services, and from the challenges the kinder faces in implementing the national quality framework to the need for securing ongoing funding for early childcare centres. Every issue Miss Sue raised comes from her three decades of experience as a frontline childhood educator. It goes without saying that Miss Sue cares a lot about children, but she has the interests of her staff and all early childcare workers at heart too. During my visit I was advised by Miss Sue that, as a result of the fragmentation of kindergarten management in Victoria, it has become significantly difficult for early childcare workers to access their workplace entitlements. Miss Sue believes it is simply unfair that an individual who has worked for three different kindergartens across the management spectrum would need to pursue each employer to access entitlements such as long service leave. There should be portability for those entitlements. In the case of smaller kindergartens, Miss Sue informs me, a for…
date: 2017-09-12T16:50:00+00:00

Treasury Laws Amendment (Enterprise Tax Plan No. 2) Bill 2017; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
type: item
description: I do.
encoded: I do.
date: 2017-09-11T18:30:00+00:00

Elections | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: For far too long, conservatives have suggested that Australia's young people simply aren't politically engaged, that they are apathetic and that they don't care about politics. We're told that...
encoded: For far too long, conservatives have suggested that Australia's young people simply aren't politically engaged, that they are apathetic and that they don't care about politics. We're told that they can't set a stamp and they don't know how to post a letter. This suggestion was reinforced by the fact that around 400,000 of Australia's 18- to 25-year-olds weren't enrolled to vote at the 2013 election. And around 130,000, or half of all 18-year-olds, were not enrolled to vote at the last election in 2016. This means that they couldn't have had their say even if they'd wanted to. Two weeks ago, I spoke at Northcote High School, a prominent school in my electorate, about the importance of political participation. I spoke to 16- and 17-year-old high-school students, who are on the cusp of adulthood and on the cusp of being entitled to vote. Many of them were frustrated with the democratic process, but I discovered that they were very interested in enrolling and in shaping the democracy and society in which they live. Here I must pay tribute to the coalition, because the coalition are great mobilisers of our young. The coalition's policies have brought young people into the enrolment in unprecedented numbers. The coalition, in recent days, have proven to be a more powerful volunteer mobilisation organisation for Labor than even some of our own efforts. From the numerous conversations I have had with youth leaders over the last few years, I know that the conservative government's attacks on their rights, their ability to go to university, their penalty rates and their work, or simply its ignoring of climate change, are regarded as the biggest threat to their generation and have played a remarkable role in bringing them on to the electoral roll in unprecedented numbers. Instead of giving in to a feeling of powerlessness, young Australians are fighting back. They are fighting back in a traditional and old-fashioned way: they are enrolling and getting ready to vote. They are g…
date: 2017-09-05T16:31:00+00:00

Asylum Seekers | Statements by Members | House debates
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description: A week has gone since the government's plan was revealed to cease almost immediately all income support for asylum seekers transferred to Australia for medical reasons. These asylum seekers will...
encoded: A week has gone since the government's plan was revealed to cease almost immediately all income support for asylum seekers transferred to Australia for medical reasons. These asylum seekers will be given three weeks before being evicted from government-supported accommodation, essentially coercing them back into offshore detention centres. Over the past week my office has been flooded with calls and letters from our local community voicing their frustration and anger at the government's latest attempt to rob refugees of their rights and legal choices. I echo their sentiments. These asylum seekers are vulnerable people. They may be traumatised by a violent past, they may have been through severe medical challenges and they may have virtually no financial support. Now the government is cutting off their income support and giving them an eviction notice. Making these people deliberately destitute is not an act of toughness. Making these people deliberately homeless is not an act of strong leadership. It is an act of cruelty, and it is a cynical political ploy seeking a distraction from the chaos this government inflicted upon itself time and again. It is definitely not an act of strong leadership. Strong leadership would be to join with Labor in bringing an end to indefinite detention through third-party resettlement, not to punish people for needing medical care. Strong leadership would be to follow the recent recommendation of the Senate and publicly confirm these asylum seekers' eligibility to apply to participate in the US refugee resettlement arrangement, not to deny them the opportunity to apply. I will not support the removal of up to 400 refugees transferred to Australia for medical reasons.
date: 2017-09-04T16:37:00+00:00

Turnbull Government | Matters of Public Importance | House debates
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description: I'm very pleased to speak to this matter of public importance—indeed, I might say, this matter of grave importance—because these are dark and dangerous times. For over 100 years,...
encoded: I'm very pleased to speak to this matter of public importance—indeed, I might say, this matter of grave importance—because these are dark and dangerous times. For over 100 years, Australians have believed that New Zealand was a friend, a neighbour, a place that shared our values and a country with whom we would face the world together—our Anzac brothers and sisters. Indeed, in our Constitution there is a standing invitation for New Zealand to join the Commonwealth of Australia. In this friendship, of course, Australians have often lightheartedly joked about our relationship with New Zealand. Some of you may recall The Gruen Transfer and its entertaining joke about New Zealand is 100 per cent for the taking. As it's turned out, how complacent was that? That's because we now know, and this week it's been revealed, that, in fact, across the ditch lies a foreign power—not just a foreign power but a malevolent power that seems to have cast its avaricious eye upon Australia! This transformation in our foreign policy has been revealed by a few brave patriots who I think should be singled out for comment for their courage and for their imagination. The first out of the blocks with this remarkable threat to this country was the Leader of the House—'the fixer'—who is a politician known well throughout this parliament as a conviction politician. The other, of course, was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is that foreign policy colossus and paragon of loyalty—loyalty to leader, loyalty to party and loyalty to nation. Of course, what these remarkable patriots have done is they have flung down the gauntlet to this foreign power. The Minister for Foreign Affairs will not be distracted by North Korea and its development of ICBMs. This Minister for Foreign Affairs will not be distracted by the issues confronting President Trump, the UN or anyone else. This Minister for Foreign Affairs will turn her gaze, her 'eye of Mordor', on to New Zealand. Christopher Pyne said: How many oth…
date: 2017-08-17T15:56:00+00:00

Broadband | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: The Minister for Communications, the current Prime Minister, promised all Australians that they would have access to download speeds of between 25 and 100 megabits per second by the end of 2016....
encoded: The Minister for Communications, the current Prime Minister, promised all Australians that they would have access to download speeds of between 25 and 100 megabits per second by the end of 2016. An opposition member: When? The end of 2016. An opposition member: Wow! An opposition member: How's that going? Sadly, the Prime Minister's outdated infrastructure model has resulted in the collapse of this lofty ideal. As the NBN rollout is using tired copper technology, it continues to be struck with delays, and examples abound of failed availability and dismal speeds. Adding to consumer frustration is the lesser known difficulty of gaining ADSL access while waiting and waiting and waiting for the NBN. Remarkably, in my electorate of Batman, residents of Reservoir, a suburb a mere 13 kilometres from Melbourne's CBD, have had to play pot luck with ADSL access. Reservoir, the largest suburb in Melbourne, now finds itself unable to establish ADSL connections on demand. With the combined predicted NBN connection in early 2018 and the suburb's growth, constituents now have been left without any connection as they wait for an ADSL port to become available. Who would believe that people moving to a suburb like Reservoir in the city of Melbourne, a global city, would be told: 'Sorry, there are no ports available. You will not have internet access'? What is happening here is that, while Telstra, on the one hand, is uninterested in investing in expanding capacity in a suburb that is supposed to have the NBN by early 2018, families moving into the suburb of Reservoir are told they will have to wait for a family to leave before they can get access to a port—so, one in, one out. For families that rely on the internet—and, as we know, that is an ever-growing proportion of our people, and the Prime Minister used to boast this was part of the economy that he cherished—this can be catastrophic. Families, who rely on the internet for income and for assisting with education of their school-a…
date: 2017-08-16T10:37:00+00:00

Batman Electorate: Preston Market | Adjournment | House debates
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description: Over a year ago, at a public meeting in Preston attended by several hundred locals, including Robin Scott, the MP for Preston, and me, a community group was formed, named Save Our Preston Market....
encoded: Over a year ago, at a public meeting in Preston attended by several hundred locals, including Robin Scott, the MP for Preston, and me, a community group was formed, named Save Our Preston Market. This community has since worked assiduously to bring attention and support to a simple but very important goal—to preserve the much-loved character of our market and prevent it from becoming yet another bland, featureless suburban shopping mall. The campaign to save the character of Preston Market is one that I have proudly spoken about in this place and that I proudly support, as someone who loves to spend time there with my wife and son. At the outset of the Save Our Preston Market campaign, I believed that success would be reasonably straightforward. The group articulated a simple and widely supported set of goals. It was supported by me, the local state MP and the relevant planning authority, the Greens party dominated council, which was also eager to offer its support—or so it seemed. Darebin council was in a powerful position to extract key concessions in exchange for planning approvals and investment certainty. Those concessions concerned undertakings about meaningful community consultation, reasonable height limits on any development, the provision of car parking, providing a masterplan so that the community would understand the future vision for the market and preserving the character and authenticity of the market spaces themselves. But the Greens on Darebin council proved unwilling to use this moment of enormous leverage to the benefit of our community. Instead, the Greens party were obsessed with only one objective: how to weaponise the Save Our Preston Market cause for their own partisan purposes. In pursuing that objective, the fate of the market was apparently expendable. Rather than deploy their powers as the planning authority, the Darebin council simply refused all relevant planning applications. This had the effect of sending the developers off to appeal …
date: 2017-08-16T19:30:00+00:00

| Personal Explanations | House debates
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description: In question time yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister stated that I have a family trust. That is incorrect. I do not have a family trust.
encoded: In question time yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister stated that I have a family trust. That is incorrect. I do not have a family trust.
date: 2017-08-15T15:31:00+00:00

| Personal Explanations | House debates
type: item
description: Yes.
encoded: Yes.
date: 2017-08-15T15:31:00+00:00

| Personal Explanations | House debates
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description: I wish to make a personal explanation.
encoded: I wish to make a personal explanation.
date: 2017-08-15T15:31:00+00:00

Aged Care | Private Members' Business | House debates
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description: I begin by thanking the member for Lalor for putting forward this motion on retirement villages. In June, Australia was shocked by revelations on the Four Corners program concerning the...
encoded: I begin by thanking the member for Lalor for putting forward this motion on retirement villages. In June, Australia was shocked by revelations on the Four Corners program concerning the mistreatment of residents in retirement villages. The retirement village that particularly featured in that program, Veronica Gardens, is located in my electorate of Batman. The mistreatment of residents there has been deeply upsetting to them and has appalled the broader community, and we cannot let this continue. One of the most horrifying cases is that of Gwyneth Jones, who was forcibly admitted to psychiatric care after repeated run-ins with management at Veronica Gardens. Freedom of information documents show a plan to have her evicted that pre-dates her admission to the hospital. It was only with the assistance of disability advocates that she was able to stop the eviction and receive an apology from the company. It is utterly unacceptable that Gwyneth has had to put her physical and mental wellbeing at stake in pursuing fair treatment from the management body of her own retirement village. Immediately following the Four Corners program, I had a meeting with residents at Veronica Gardens, and I thanked the residents there for speaking with me honestly and openly about the misconduct and mistreatment they had endured at the hands of Aveo. Residents also voiced their concerns over issues such as complex and confusing contracts, excessive exit fees and the practice of churning residents. With a growing older demographic, in particular those who are not home owners, low-income households and older residents with high-care needs, housing stock is not keeping up with demand. The current retirement village industry and regulations are not flexible enough to meet the changing needs of our ageing population, who are often moving into these places with the expectation of their social and physical needs being met. Sadly, that is often not the case. It is imperative to have a national appr…
date: 2017-08-14T11:39:00+00:00

Live Animal Exports | Constituency Statements | House debates
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description: This June Australia once again faced reports of horrendous animal cruelty taking place at the Al Rai livestock market in Kuwait during the Festival of Sacrifice. It is alleged that Australian...
encoded: This June Australia once again faced reports of horrendous animal cruelty taking place at the Al Rai livestock market in Kuwait during the Festival of Sacrifice. It is alleged that Australian sheep found their way outside the approved Export Supply Chain Assurance System, ESCAS, and were slipped into the Kuwait marketplace, where they suffered in the heat before being sold off individually to face backyard slaughter. This represents a severe breach of the ESCAS regulatory framework, which has once again undermined public confidence in the system and allowed for Australian sheep to potentially be subjected to terrible treatment. This is not acceptable. Labor has written to the minister, Barnaby Joyce, expressing our concerns over these reports, requesting that the minister ensure this investigation is expedited and asking for assurance that if the exporters are found to be in breach of ESCAS they will be held to account. ESCAS is set up to make sure that an Australian animal does not endure abuse like this. Yet, once again, the horrendous animal cruelty we witness shows the urgent need to review the current ESCAS system and establish the office of the Inspector General for Animal Welfare and Live Animal Exports. Ahead of the 2016 federal election, Labor released a six-point strategy calling for a review of the ESCAS, including its sanctions, to ensure that it's working as effectively as it needs to be. More importantly, we called for an independent inspector general of animal welfare, who will have the authority and the responsibility for overseeing implementation of laws, investigating breaches and providing independent advice to the federal government on reforms where the need for them exists. If we do not release publicly available information on breaches, actions taken and sanctions imposed on the mistreatment and abuse of Australian animals overseas, we will have to continue to rely on charities such as Animals Australia to be the watchdog of this multibillion d…
date: 2017-08-10T10:54:00+00:00

Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
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description: It is a pleasure to rise in support of the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017, which protects the take-home pay of some of our lowest paid workers. There are over 11,000...
encoded: It is a pleasure to rise in support of the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017, which protects the take-home pay of some of our lowest paid workers. There are over 11,000 people in my community of Batman who work in the retail and hospitality industries. While the economic arguments for cutting penalty rates remain nonexistent, the case for their retention is clear. Penalty rates are essential for low-paid workers in Australia to keep the lights on and to keep food on the table. Penalty rates also recognise the sacrifice weekend workers make by giving up time with their families. Today, however, I would like to speak on an aspect of this debate that I think deserves greater attention—the disproportionate impact that penalty rate cuts will have on women and what that means for gender equality in Australia. Acknowledging the gender aspect of this issue is important because it not only demonstrates the cruelty of these cuts but is also symptomatic of this government wilfully ignoring gender equality in its policy-making process. Experts have warned that the Turnbull government's decision to allow penalty rate cuts to proceed will have a disproportionate and negative impact on women in our society. Marian Baird from the University of Sydney states that 54 per cent of employees in the hospitality and retail sectors—the sectors most affected by these cuts to penalty rates—are women. She notes that, for many women, working on weekends is their only option because conventional career work on weekdays is too inflexible for them and there is no child care. When we talk about the gender pay gap, we must recognise this refers not only to the difference in pay between men and women in the same positions but also to the fact that industries with disproportionately large female workforces are often the lowest paid. When you attack the lowest-paid workers in this country, you are disproportionately attacking women, and, in particular, young women. For example, …
date: 2017-06-19T11:28:00+00:00

Workplace Relations | Statements by Members | House debates
type: item
description: On 1 July, millionaires across Australia will get a $16,400 tax cut, while some 700,000 Australian workers will get their Sunday and public holiday pay rates cut. In my electorate, 11,000 people...
encoded: On 1 July, millionaires across Australia will get a $16,400 tax cut, while some 700,000 Australian workers will get their Sunday and public holiday pay rates cut. In my electorate, 11,000 people work in the industries that will be affected by these cuts. Tell me how that is fair. I have been talking to people across my community about these cuts. Countless locals have signed our petitions 'Protect our penalty rates'. People in my community are worried, and for good reason. Our community are concerned, and they are taking real action because they know what these cuts mean for low-income earners in our community. Whether these cuts are phased in over two years or three years does not really matter; the damage will be done: Australian workers will be worse off. I call on the Liberal Party do the right thing by my constituents and, indeed, their own constituents by voting with Labor to protect the take-home pay of some of our lowest paid workers. Today they can decide to back workers instead of their millionaire mates, and they can do it by supporting Labor's legislation. This is a government that is presiding over a low wages growth economy, an economy with low growth across sectors, and its trickle-down model is not working. The country is becoming more unfair, the difference in the distribution of wealth is sharpening and Australians are worse off. It is time for this government to demonstrate some real compassion and support Labor's legislation to restore wage justice.
date: 2017-06-14T13:51:00+00:00